Her von welken Nächten

When I first decided to get Dornenreich's CD I was just curious, not having heard much about them. I have some mixed feelings about this. First of all, the music overall is excellent, most of the songs seem well constructed and rather interesting, with a nice blend of instruments, however right away from the start of the first track, "Ich Bin Aus Mir", something grabs my attention, and its not a good thing. The whispery, squealy, and squeaky vocals. Those are not cool, just plain gay and annoying. That is the main problem I have with this. The vocals are just plain horrid. Worst I've heard in a while. I think Dani Filth's vocals would have been less annoying here.

Having said that, I love the guitars, violins, drums, and the other instruments that are present on here. The only other thing that drew me away was three tracks, all pretty lengthy ones, which were just some ambience with annoying whispers. Thats a waste of time, and why the band would include it on the CD is beyond me. Have some ambience/acoustic as an interlude, but not three 5-7 minute songs with annoying whispers. That just takes it way beyond.

To go back on a positive note, some highlights are the fine atmospheric melodies on "Grell Und Dunkel Stramt Das Leben", the really cool riffs at the beginning of "Schwarz Schaut Tiefsten Lichterglanz", and the somewhat heavy but melodic riffs on "Trauerbrandung". These almost beg for a high grade of 90+, but when such a big part of this album is dedicated to whispers and shitty ambience, I just can't. When he actually growls, the vocals aren't too bad, but once again the whispered squeals are too much. Cut them out, as well as some unnecessary acoustics, and you'll have yourself a very well done symphonic black metal album.